The health assessment Jaylen Brown offered after Wednesday’s Celtics loss echoed several he’s shared during the second half of this season:
He’s not 100%, but he’s working through it.
“I was in some pain today,” the All-Star wing said after tallying 24 points and nine rebounds in a 124-103 loss to the Miami Heat at TD Garden. “But just pushing through it, trying to find ways to still be aggressive and add value to the team and stuff like that. But it’s something I’ve got to work through and manage.”
Brown has dealt with a variety of ailments during Boston’s title defense — shoulder, hip, ankle, illness. The one currently hindering him is what the Celtics are calling a “right knee posterior impingement.” He also suffered a bone bruise in the same knee that sidelined him for three straight games in late March.
After sitting out Monday’s road win over the Memphis Grizzlies, Brown was listed as questionable for Wednesday, then upgraded to available before tipoff. He played 29 minutes, exiting when head coach Joe Mazzulla pulled all of his starters with Boston down 15 midway through the fourth quarter, and called his performance “a good step forward.”
“I’ve had to come to grips that every night, I’m not going to feel my normal self,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean I still can’t make plays and things like that. So it’s just something that we are working through. Today was a good step forward. I’ve got some stuff lined up with the medical staff in order to be and feel better come playoffs. But as for now, just mentally working through not feeling great, but still able to find ways to be effective, I guess.”
That’s not the most encouraging update from one of the Celtics’ most important players, and it raises questions about why Brown is playing in games like this — which, since Boston has virtually no chance of finishing anywhere other than second in the Eastern Conference, are essentially meaningless — rather than sitting and resting.
Brown said his decision to suit up isn’t tied to the 65-game threshold players must reach to qualify for end-of-season awards, including the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams. Brown, an All-NBA second-teamer in 2023 who narrowly missed out on third-team honors last season, has played in 60 games, and Boston has six remaining.
The Celtics have been managing Brown’s minutes around his recent DNPs, with Mazzulla and his staff aiming to thread the needle between recovery and rust avoidance. The 2024 NBA Finals MVP hasn’t logged more than 30 since March 12, when he played 38 in a loss to Oklahoma City.
“I mean, it’s both, right?” Mazzulla said. “You want him to continue to get in form, to continue to work, and at the same time, find that balance and make sure he’s ready to go. I trust him in the way he prepares himself, so whatever he thinks is best, we’ll do.”
Mazzulla also viewed Wednesday’s loss as a positive step for Brown, saying he “just continues to look better and better each night, much more comfortable out there.” Brown averaged just 18.0 points per game in March, his lowest-scoring month since 2019.
Brown couldn’t guarantee he’ll be in peak form when the postseason begins later this month, but he expressed confidence in the roadmap he’s following.
“I’ve seen some specialists and stuff like that, but we’ve got a great medical staff and we’ve got good people around, so come playoffs, my goal is to be feeling my best,” Brown said. “So we’re just working through that, and it’s a thing that we kind of manage and you push through. But we’ve got a good plan in place. Come playoffs, my goal is to be feeling my best.”
He’s not the only one who’s been in and out of the lineup as Boston’s regular season winds down.
The Celtics haven’t played a game with their nine-man core rotation (the starting five of Brown, Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis, plus Al Horford, Payton Pritchard, Sam Hauser and Luke Kornet) all available since Feb. 23. In each of their last 19 contests, they were missing one or more starters, multiple rotation players, or both. Holiday, Porzingis and Horford all sat out against Miami.
Though Boston’s depth is unquestioned — they went 15-4 in those 19 games — there is some uncertainty over how its top unit will perform once it’s reassembled. The Celtics’ starting lineup has a negative net rating this season (-2.2) and has played just four games together since the All-Star break.
It’s unclear whether Mazzulla plans to give that full group any additional action down the stretch, or trust that it’ll recalibrate itself in its opening-round series against Atlanta, Orlando, Miami or Chicago — all teams the Celtics should easily dispatch regardless of which lineup they field.
“We’ve had a next-man-up mentality probably since I’ve been in a Celtic uniform, so the strength of us is not one or two players, or three or four players,” Brown said. “It’s always been our team and being able to be versatile. Any given night, somebody can kill you. So we’ve got to keep that mind, and in times where guys are healthy or not healthy, we’ve just got to lean on our teammates to get us through. So I’m looking forward to those moments. A lot of our guys are primed. They’re experienced. They’re ready for a big moment. It’s that time of the year, so let’s get ready.”